Obesity and overweight effect more than 50% and adult-onset diabetes affects 8% of the overall population of the United States, but the incidence among African Americans and Hispanics is far higher. The Pennington Biomedical Research Center, a member of the Louisiana State University System, is leading an effort to enhance research in Louisiana on obesity and adult-onset diabetes by recruiting, mentoring, and retaining promising young scientists. Our COBRE proposal involves four initial projects that employ a cell biological and molecular approach to address questions relating to adipocyte differentiation and muscle insulin resistance using both animal and human cell lines. The Specific Aims of the COBRE proposal are to: (a) expand the critical mass of investigators in the cell biology of obesity/diabetes research;(b) mentor junior faculty displaying great promise in setting priorities and multi-tasking, critical thinking, hypothesis formulation, experimental planning, oral and written communication, laboratory management, and career planning;(c) implement evaluation criteria for junior investigators that increases their odds for acquiring continuous independent R01 funding;(d) foster a collaborative and interactive research environment in which Junior Investigators may conduct nationally recognized research and (e) strengthen the research infrastructure for obesity/diabetes research by establishing a Cell Biology Core and by increasing support for the Genomics Core at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center. Our goal is to "graduate" at least 8 junior faculty from the COBRE program. A commitment has been made to "graduate" future junior scientists from the COBRE program that are a part of the LSU-Baton Rouge faculty and the clinical sciences faculty of PBRC. The long-term goal of the COBRE program is to increase the retention of promising young scientists within Louisiana and to develop the critical mass of scientists required to acquire a focused program project(s)